Talk:Yggdra Union Beginner's Guide/@comment-5504603-20190113225511
There seems to be a misconception that Large units (Knights, Griffon Riders) have some kind of innate advantage over the Small Units (Undines, Brigands) in combat, and I'd like to quash this here and now. Simply put: they do not. One soldier, including the leader, has about as much health (a stat that's completely hidden in YU, but can be seen in BU and GU) as two smaller ones; this is the reason a small unit has 2x more men than larger unit types. In the GBA version, the ratio is 3:6, and 4:8 in the PSP port. There are a lot of variables that might create the illusion of larger units being "better" than their smaller counterparts, which I'll address now. The RNG is a big one, as there is always some RNG involved when an attacking unit charges, then the defending unit retaliates. Stats are also a factor, as combat often tips in the favor of the unit with better stats. Usually, the unit initiating the attack has the advantage, but results can vary greatly. Then there's other aspects that can also come into play during battle such as the terrain, time of day, aggression/rage, battle penalty, and skills (I'll talk about the latter two later on); to make my case, let's assume that both units are on generally equal footing in terms of combat conditions. A beefed up Milanor who has a weapon advantage over a generic Knight can start a battle, knock off none of the enemy troops, then lose all of his in the counterattack. This can occur even if Milanor's stats dwarfs his opponent's; this has happened to me more often than I'd like and it's always aggravating. But that's just an extreme example, so here's a more even scenario wherein the RNG doesn't decide to completely throw the match. Let's say Nietzsche picks a fight with Leon, a Dragon General and boss character. Both have the same weapon type, so that's a non-factor here in terms of damage output. Leon tends to be pretty strong during the occasions when the player must face him, meanwhile Nietzsche's combat—though she is by no means a bad unit—will not be reliable without player investment due to her shaky base stats. Needless to say, without favorable conditions, putting her up against him in a straight fight probably won't work out very well for you. Not good enough? Well even if you were to pit Nietzsche up against the scrub Knight that bullshitted his way past Milanor in my earlier example, you could still end up on the losing end. But so could he. If their stats are about on par with each other, it all just boils down to who did more damage during the charge/counter portion of the fight. Still ignoring aggressive and rage damage, just to be clear. Now let's talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the Large body type in contrast with the Small type. I'll preface by stating that there are probably some finer details that are escaping me right now, but if I remember anything I'll edit them in where appropriate. Advantages *Large units have a higher damage multiplier that is calculated at the end of a fight when the opponent falls. As mentioned earlier, every soldier in a large unit is worth about the same as two small ones, so that means their damage multiplier per man is double that of a single small one. Ex: One Valkyrie has a multiplier of 10%/8% (GBA/PSP), and a single Dragon Knight instead has 20%/16%. It adds up to equal max damage (60%/64%) overall, due to the aforementioned quantities within these two body types. **This is obviously a bit of a plus for them, as that means there's less damage variation on average when they win the fight, and they'll always do a bit more than a smaller body type would have if they barely scraped by (last man standing). *This one is a bit more noticeable, but Large units don't feel the effects of battle penalty as much. It takes them twice as many battles before they lose one of their men, while Small units will lose one man each time they take part in repeated combat during unions. **On the other hand a penalty, once applied, is a bit steeper for them, but this doesn't do too much to counteract the positive. (I fear I'm dangerously close to the character limit, so I'll close it off here and finish up in a response to this comment.)